Dive toss bombing

So you spawned in a bomber (or PBJ) in an arcade ground forces battle and see no chance surviving the many red interceptors that spawned as well? I get ya, particularly the Wellington is of very little use in such a situation.

There is one tactic that may still allow you to kill red tanks in that sortie, though: Dive toss bombing.

a depiction of a real world toss bombing manoeuvre

You retract the flaps if they're lowered (which they often are for no good reason) to reduce drag. Pitch down the nose to pick up speed. Once you're fast and close enough (based on experience), you pull up again into a not too steep climb. (Side benefit: The aim of fighters will be somewhat degraded by this manoeuvre.)

There will be the bomb impact circle symbol on the ground well ahead of you. Much farther ahead than if you were flying level. Maybe it's obstructed by your plane, in which case you should switch to "F4" view.

Now preferably aim at a group of red tanks that are bunched up or depicted in a (vertical) line. Quickly drop your bombs on these.

Next, press "J" to leave you bomber ASAP and resume playing tank before your tank gets roasted. Your bomber is of no use any more.

The bombs may very well be in the air for so long (doing their whining sound) that they'll detonate instantly on impact. This means stationary tanks won't escape by driving away, which partially compensates for the inaccuracy of the hurried tossing.

It's advantageous to be a skilled War Thunder plane pilot, even in War Thunder ground forces!

(Toss bombing was originally meant to allow subsonic aircraft to deploy powerful nuclear free-fall bombs without damaging themselves too much. The tossing increases the distance and the time till explosion.

Toss bombing was also used during the Falklands War for a low risk attack of Sea Harriers against the well-defended Port Stanley airfield. It can also be used to accurately attack a target with a guided bomb, as shown in the illustration above, if only the guidance method doesn't depend on the bombing plane itself having a line of sight to the target during the bomb's terminal approach to the target.)

Tank Tactics in War Thunder - Part II

Nothing to do at work, too early for playing WT (don't want to do it too much) - time for some more tank tactics.

(10) Driving around corners

Sometimes - particularly with casemate tanks (tanks without turret like the SU-85) you want to go around a corner, and engage a red tank if there's one. This should be done at high speed, then drift in a 90° turn. This way you'll be a difficult target and face your opponent ready to fire with your strong frontal armour quickly.

An alternative is to do it as tanks with turrets should do: Angle the hull, then drive straight forward. A T-34 angled at 45° will hardly be penetrated during such a manoeuvre. The downside is that you need slightly (maybe tenth of a second) longer till you can shoot yourself.

(11) Slow loaders should fight with a buddy

A slow-loading tank such as SU-152, KV-2, T-44-122 or IS-3 should have a quicker-loading buddy as backup to avoid getting overrun during the reloading time. This applies the most during street fighting.

(12) Learn to drive

Don't position your tank very close to another tank, particularly not if it's one with a slow turret traverse (Panzer III, M10, KVs, Maus). They need to rotate their hull to engage a sudden new contact in the rear, on the left or right in time and you might block that movement if you were too close.

Sometimes two or more tanks fight around a street corner. Make sure you are angled (see (10)) and all of these tanks are well-spaced and in parallel. The one with the thickest armour should be the one on the inside.

Don't drive in the middle of a road or street. In most places there's enough width for a second, faster tank to pass at a higher speed - unless the slow tank player thinks he owns the road and blocks all of it.

Be aware of from where you could be shot. Minimize your exposure. Beginners can be spotted easily by how carelessly they drive. 

Drive on horizontal surfaces whenever possible. Even slight slopes can keep you from shooting at a target, particularly with Soviet tanks (due to their poor maximum gun depression of much less than 8°).

German tanker proverb: Fahren wie das Wasser fließt- drive as water would flow. Don't drive across hills, drive around them! You can easily shoot upwards, downwards is the problem - and you are visible to distant opponents on the top of a hill.

(13) Use hull (and turret) angles

At 45° angle (not facing the enemy directly with your front hull, but standing half sideways) your armour is approximately 50% thicker, at 60° it's approximately 100% thicker. Use this if it makes a difference (particularly with Tiger, KV)!

(14) Have a break if you had a string of very poor matches

(15) Fully automatic fire

With fully automatic fire (12.7 mm/0.50" calibre machineguns up to 23 mm autocannons) don't shoot at tanks. Shoot at their crewmembers instead! You can discover the awesome might of a Pz II with 20 mm APCR (Pzgr 40) with this tactic.

(16) Memorise the weak spots of common opponents

Late model T-34 don't have a weakspot at the driver's hatch, for example. it's actually stronger than the rest of the upper glacis. Shoot the turret instead. Also,a void shooting at the spare track segments on German tanks. They add to the armour plate behind considerably.

(17) Quickly kill a few bots at the beginning of a match to earn a bomber

Then fly it ASAP, before the red team can muster fighters to stop you. Influence the early fight at an objective with your bombs while the first wave of red tanks are still numerous and bunched up. This move can turn a battle onto the path of victory.

(18) Do not use SPAAGs in AB unless they are competitive in ground combat. Bombers can be dealt with by fighter spawns. A good fighter player can stop a bomber almost reliably with a single fighter - even in face of two interceptors.

(19) Don't aim at tanks with plane rockets

Aim next to it, or else your rockets will be super accurate and impact left and right of it. I can't help it that rockets decide to disperse whenever you aim well, though.

(20) Use fighters to kill bombers or interceptors

... until the bombs were dropped. Never ever refuse to protect a bomber and go attacking medium tanks with a fighter! That's left to the idiots.

(21) Seek to fight in hilly terrain in American tanks

American tanks have exceptional maximum gun depression angles (10-12°), they can shoot on slopes much better than others. Sloped terrains are their area of comparative advantage.

(22) Choose your spawn point

A jungle map with objective in the north only and both a southern and northern spawn point has 12-13 players spawning in the south way too often.

(23) Culminating point

The culminating point (of attack) is a term from Carl von Clausewitz and describes the point (or line, time) where or when the attack isn't stronger than the defence any more. This happens in War Thunder ground forces when attackers lost some tanks (repairing and falling behind, get distracted, getting cowardly and stay behind, got killed) and strength in general (lost crewmembers) during an attack, while the defenders are getting respawn reinforcements that arrive quicker than attacker respawn reinforcements.

The northern team often goes past the culminating point on the Kuban map in the southeast; they win at the objective, then push almost to the spawn where they die. The counterattack then usually recaptures the objective.

Avoid this behaviour; instead, be patient and move into a good defensive position to await the counterattack. You may hold out with two tanks till the rushnoobs respawned and arrived.

(24) Have fun with a heavy tank

... and push a smaller tank into the sea on the Jungle map once. It's great fun to see them drowning. 

(25) Be patient in bombers

Take the time to make a good approach (not necessarily from the direction of the bomber's spawn point) if you are in a bomber facing neither SPAAGs nor fighters (any more). You may also take the time and do a full turn to give escort fighters the time needed to shoot up SPAAGs, or turn away from an interceptor at first to give escort fighters the time to deal with it.

(26) Minimize bomber silhouettes and do pitch

Make sure a single interceptor doesn't see the huge target area of your wings. Show him your side, then pitch (up and down, up and down) with your bomber till he passed by. Such evasive manoeuvres are much more helpful than your gunners.

"Security" (tank tactics)

Aside from not driving like an idiot, the core skill that most players in War Thunder ground forces matches are missing is an understanding of security.

I'll explain this concept form military theory:

Think of a fight with two blue tanks on one side of the hill facing two red tanks on the other side of the hill. A few seconds of distraction could be enough to allow the others to win this fight. They are "fixed" in this fight, since running away is no option either.

A red tank could now appear on the left or right side f the hill, and decide the fight with a deadly flank shot.

There are only two options to prevent this, and both would be "providing security" to those involved in the frontal fight:

(1) A 3rd tank looks to the left and provides security to the left flank and a 4th tank looks to the right and provides security to the right flank.

(2) A 3rd tank stays some distance behind, keeps both left and right flank observed and quickly reacts if a red tank appears there.

This security effort does three things:

(a) Absorb the attack, preferably with an effective frontal armour.

(b) Defeat the attack with an effective gun.

(c) Warn the teammates who are involved in the frontal fight (through intra-squad voice chat, map ping, chat commands, or simply noise of shot), so even if (a) or (b) fails, they still stand a chance.

Compare chapter IV in Field Manual 3-90 "Tactics" (U.S.Army, 2001)

I'm talking about "screen", "guard" and "cover" here, since they apply to War Thunder ground forces matches.

Providing security greatly enhances the chances of a successful attack and a successful defence, even though it is a diversion from the main, front-facing force. It is worth it.

Think of a spear cut in two by a sabre blow from the side. The strength of the point doesn't matter any more if the spear is cut. So don't put all strength into the spear point; make sure you can withstand threats from the flanks!

Now a practical example:

You see two blue tanks 50 m in front of you facing to the left, shooting along a street. You know some red tank could appear 200 m in front of you and kill them with two shots in their vulnerable sides.

The usual behaviour of a WT player is to either join them shooting along the street at the left, racing past them or staying behind cowardly. A player who understand the importance of security may instead decide to stop and get ready to defeat a surprise attack from 200 m in front.

Sometime this would be the less successful option, but usually only so if the two blue players in front of you made the mistake of attacking around the corner when it's not a successful move in itself. That would be their mistake, not yours.

Tank Tactics in War Thunder - Part I

No work today, my client is upgrading ... spare time for writing.

I) Use of artillery

Artillery has become more powerful sometime during the last year. It's still advisable to focus the artillery fires on the points where they matter the most and on the most vulnerable targets.

Massed artillery fires (five or more fire missions on one spot) can be devastating to a group of red tanks, and such a bombardment is a great preparation for breaking a defensive position (such as the Southern hill on the Jungle map).

There's a different, much more smart use for artillery, though: It's fine concealment.

A tank in trouble (unable to move, under fire) can at times be saved by concealing it with a curtain of dirt thrown up by artillery. You my also get shot every time you drive around a corner before you can shoot at your opponent around the corner, 50+ metres distant. In this case you could call artillery between corner and opponent, angle your hull appropriately, aim roughly at the correct direction and when the curtain of dust is gone you'll stand an even chance.

II) Teamwork with planes in AB ground battles

As a fighter, your primary objective is either a red bomber or attacker or red interceptors. To shoot at open-topped vehicles is an icing on the cake. Players who dive to shoot at tanks with Spitfires et cetera while their team's bomber gets killed by red fighters are noobs.

You should not join with a fighter in three cases:

(1) you know that the attacker plane on this map is a Pe-3 or Beaufighter, the two least effective attackers

(2) you team will fly a bomber or attacker and no red fighters are queued

(3) you cannot hide your tank in a safe-enough spot in time

You don't need to when

(1) you know that the attacker plane on this map is a Il-2 without bombs or a I-153 (still not very effective)

(2) your tank is defending or supporting and would be dearly missed

(3) you know your team spawns a Wellington and two red fighters are queued already (Wellington gonna die anyway)

This explains why it's useful to announce to your team what attacker or bomber you got when you got one the first time. 

Fighters can support a bomber or attacker by flying ahead and engaging SPAAGs, but this is mostly relevant if the bomber approaches the battlefield from the "red" team's side and no red fighters interfered, distracting the blue fighters.

III) SPAAGs

The average SPAAG is near-worthless in AB ground battles. Go play RB is you want to play SPAAGs!

IV) Don't waste time

To waste time = cowardice. Go forward into a useful position ASAP! Players who begin to snipe at 1+ km distant targets from the spawn point are fools.

V) Spawn point

Choose your spawn point wisely. Some are better for killing, others are better for winning. Too many spawning in the spot for better killing will result in defeat, few research points and all-too often few kills.

VI) Hull angle

Some tanks such as the KV-1 have almost good-enough armor, which can be made impenetrable in a 1vs1 fight by proper positioning. A 45° angle between shell trajectory and armor plate increases effective armor thickness by approx. 50%. A 80 mm armor plate turns into a much more formidable 120 mm plate this way. Tanks with a strong side armor can exploit this. Position their hull in a 45° angle to the opponent, this will make the hull invulnerable in many cases. You can do the same with the turret if you'll take long till next shot is ready anyway.

VII: First shot

The first shot at a red tank should disarm him. This requires to hit the turret crew (or blow up its ammunition). A penetration slightly below the turret is usually a good choice if available. The second shot can then be aimed at the driver, ensuring a kill by knocking out enough of the crew, or at least stopping his retreat.

To disable the driver first would provoke a potentially catastrophic return fire by the red tank and one-shot kills are rarely a reliable option.

VIII: Know your opponent

Press the "N" key to see who's successful on the other team. Don't do anything needlessly risky when you meet one of those. An ordinary "team" usually has merely one to five effective players, with the others being really poor players or having a really poor match at least.

Know the opposing tank. Where can his armor withstand your gun, and where? Does he reload quicker or slower than you? Is his turret traverse painfully slow? Can he depress his gun as well as you can, better or worse? How many crew and where are they? Where is the ammunition? Can your armor withstand his gun?

IX: Predictability

Avoid appearing at the same spot (climbing a hill or driving around corner) again and again - some red player will notice this regularity and lie in wait to kill you. Do this to him.


Patching complete - see ya next time!